Gas Prices Up in Mid-Michigan

After about five days of decline, the tides are turning for gas prices in Mid-Michigan. On Tuesday, some stations are charging $3.65 per gallon, which is a pain for holiday travelers.

"I'm driving down to North Carolina, so I know it's going to cost me an extra $100 or so to get there," said Holt resident Matt Custack.

Experts say it's not unusual to see prices go up before a holiday weekend.

"As the demand curve goes up, we see that our cost gets pushed up. That's what I think has happened here," said Mark Griffin, president of the Michigan Petroleum Association.

According to Griffin, unrest in the Middle East and the rising cost of crude oil are also affecting gas prices.

"That's made the oil markets nervous. We've seen crude oil go up about $5 a barrel, which unfortunately the major oil companies respond to almost immediately when we see an increase like that," said Griffin.

That means your local gas station is also paying more and also shifting at least part of that burden to you. Griffin can't speculate if gas will get any more expensive this holiday season, but says the cost usually starts dropping when it peaks.

While industry experts see expensive holiday gas as somewhat of a trend, $3.65 a gallon is still a number that some drivers didn't expect.

"It's an expense I don't expect to wake up to. You never run into a price hike like this in anything else," said Custack.

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